12/18/02
With the new year and some kind of lacunae redesign approaching (possibly at the same time, possibly not), I figured I should take this opportunity to ask: what would you like to see on this site that would make it more fun/useful for you? This is an open-ended question, but if you have ever mumbled something like "I wish Douglas would ___________," now's your chance.
I've been taking advantage of the break to do a couple of frivolous, time-consuming things that I've been wanting to do for a while. Last night I made a CD-R of all of Stereolab's singles in reverse chronological order, if that gives you any idea. (Sounds great, actually.) Today I cooked a giant vat of Moghlai-style chickpeas, browsed through a couple of Krazy Kat books in search of the perfect image of the brick for that little project I've been putting off for, oh, ten years now (Columbia has the original Krazy Kat collection from the '40s, glory be), had lunch with my friend Claudia, and did a bit of housework. And two nights ago I went to a show at the BQE Lounge, featuring a band called the Tallboys that I'd been hearing a lot about. (A friend compared them to the Fall, but disappointingly that had more to do with one guitarist's Craig Scanlon-ish tuning quirks than to their material or presentation.) They were decent; the opening band, who will not be humiliated in public here by name, were not. Now, see, it's perfectly okay by me if you buy yourselves fancy Casio keyboards with your trust fund money, even if you live in Williamsburg--God knows some wonderful bands have started that way. And I have no objections to performing when you have no idea how to work the aforementioned Casios, either. But when you're a "synth-pop band," it's usually considered polite to write the songs before you get up on stage.
I'll be DJing on WFMU this Friday 3-6, and again Sunday 10-midnight. Yay.